October 2016

Thursday, July 03, 2014

The whole being absurd to point out absurdity schtick is funny and effective when there's truth to be revealed or underscored and Limbaugh is usually brilliant when using this meme to point to leftist idiocy.

But there comes a time when “idiot” isn’t a pejorative; it’s an excuse.

Mr Limbaugh is doing his the-pope-is-a-marxist-communist-not-a-corporatist-like-me thing again. After reading this latest rather bizarre attack against the Holy Father, I am faced with three possibilities.

1. Mr Limbaugh has relapsed into his drug problem.

2. He’s an idiot.

or

3. He is deliberately baiting the Vicar of Christ for ratings, despite the fact that a grade-school child could read the interview he’s referencing and know that he’s misquoting and miscasting what the Holy Father said.

Given the choices, I’ve decided that, in charity, I will give Mr Limbaugh the benefit of the doubt and assume that he’s an idiot. I don’t, for instance, think that the fact that he makes at least $70 million per year in salary, or that his net worth is approximately $400 million, has in any way messed with his mind.

What set Mr Limbaugh off on another of his attack-the-Holy-Father spiels is an interview Pope Francis gave to Il Messaggero on Sunday.

The most *charitable* explanation is that Limbaugh is an idiot. The more realistic explanation is that nobody in his position is really so dumb as to believe the pope is a communist or thinks Jesus was a communist, so the more likely take is that he’s ginning up ratings with a little good old fashioned pope bashing.

What he is emphatically not doing is making the slightest effort to understand Francis or the Church’s teaching on the poor (a word he habitually pronounces “pewer” with a sneer).

The Standard Bearer of the Thing that Used to Be Conservatism, which has joined the pro-abort Left in a deepening hatred toward the Church and this pope.

I've been a huge fan of Limbaugh's for more than 20 years and so seeing this sort of thing is most troubling but there's no getting around the fact that he's wrong about this Pope. Not just wrong though. He seems to be going out of his way to impugn the Vicar of Christ and relying on the main stream media to do it.

It truly makes no sense to me.

I don't think him to be an idiot, certainly not in totality yet his views on Pope Francis are pure idiocy.

What the hell is wrong with him? To what exactly is he selling out? It's time for the man to do some serious soul searching.

The father of an American soldier who was just released after spending five years in the hands of the Taliban says his family is starting on the next step of a long mission: Helping Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl recover from his ordeal.

"We're still in recovery mode ourselves, let alone our concern about how Bowe is going to come back, and what we need to work on," Bob Bergdahl told dozens of journalists and supporters during a press conference in Boise on Sunday.

"Someday there will be a time for interviews and books and whatever. I have a lot to say about this. I know Bowe is going to have a lot to say about this. But that's still a distant, future thing, and I won't let things get in the way of Bowe's recovery," he said.

Bowe Bergdahl was captured in 2009, and questions remain about the circumstances of his capture and the U.S. government's decision to release five Guantanamo terrorism detainees in exchange for his freedom.

Bob and Jani Bergdahl declined to answer questions about that and other matters on Sunday, but they both expressed joy and gratitude for Bergdahl's safety, at times choking back tears.

Bob Bergdahl said he admired his son's patience, perseverance and ability to adapt during nearly five years as a prisoner of the Taliban. Bowe Bergdahl was freed Saturday in exchange for five Guantanamo terrorism detainees.

"But most of all, I'm proud of how much you wanted to help the Afghan people, and what you were willing to do to go to that length," Bob Bergdahl said, fighting back tears during a press conference in Boise.

Monday, January 20, 2014

A mysterious rock which appeared in front of the Opportunity rover is “like nothing we’ve ever seen before”, according to Mars exploration scientists at Nasa.

Experts said they were “completely confused” by both the origins and makeup of the object, which is currently being investigated by Opportunity’s various measuring instruments.

Astronomers noticed the new rock had “appeared” without any explanation on an outcrop which had been empty just days earlier. The rover has been stuck photographing the same region of Mars for more than a month due to bad weather, with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California monitoring the images it sends.

He said the images, from 12 Martian days apart, were from no more than a couple of weeks ago. “We saw this rock just sitting here. It looks white around the edge in the middle and there’s a low spot in the centre that’s dark red – it looks like a jelly doughnut.

“And it appeared, just plain appeared at that spot – and we haven’t ever driven over that spot.”

It’s fairly safe to say that viewers don’t tune in to the Teen Choice Awards in hopes of hearing
incredibly insightful advice about the importance hard work, perseverance and dreaming big — but that’s exactly what they got from Ashton Kutcher this year.

After receiving the “Ultimate Choice Award” at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards on Sunday night, Kutcher began by revealing that his real first name is actually “Chris.” He then launched on a surprising diatribe about the three most important things he learned before he was known as Ashton.

“I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work,” Kutcher began with his first point. “When I was 13, I had my first job with my dad carrying shingles up to the roof, and then I got a job washing dishes at a restaurant, and then I got a job in a grocery store deli, and then I got a job at a factory sweeping Cheerio dust off the ground.”

He went on: “And I’ve never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a stepping stone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.”

Kutcher then talked about “being sexy.” He almost certainly surprised thousands of screaming teenagers when he revealed “being sexy” has nothing to do with the “crap” that they are sold by society.

“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart,” he said to cheers. “And being thoughtful, and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you. It’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it! Be smart, be thoughtful and be generous.”

There's more at the link, to include the embedded video that no longer works.

Just odd.

UPDATE: At least for now, a video (apparently a different one given the view count) has been found and for now is working. I've decided to embed it myself:

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

I know... I know... we're not supposed to judge... and technically, I'm not judging the guy/gal/guy... hell, he/she/he may get to heaven before this sinner, but dang... this is just a bit much can't we all agree?

He thought he was a woman trapped in a man’s body — but it turns out he’s “just another boring straight guy.”

ABC News editor Don Ennis strolled into the newsroom in May wearing a little black dress and an
auburn wig and announced he was transgender and splitting from his wife. He wanted to be called Dawn.

But now he says he suffered from a two-day bout of amnesia that has made him realize he wants to live his life again as Don.

“I accused my wife of playing some kind of cruel joke, dressing me up in a wig and bra and making fake ID’s with the name ‘Dawn’ on it. Seriously,” Ennis wrote in an e-mail to friends and colleagues Friday, explaining his shock after he woke up from what he called a “transient global amnesia” last month.

“It became obvious this was not the case once I took off the bra — and discovered two reasons I was wearing one,” he said, referring to his hormone-induced breasts.

“I thought it was 1999 . . . and I was sure as hell that I was a man,” Ennis said in the e-mail titled “Not Reportable, Very Confirmed.”

“Fortunately, my memories of the last 14 years have since returned. But what did not return was my identity as Dawn,” said Ennis, who had been wearing lipstick, skirts and heels.

“I am writing to let you know I’m changing my name . . . to Don Ennis. That will be my name again, now and forever. And it appears I’m not transgender after all.

“I have retained the much different mind-set I had in 1999: I am now totally, completely, unabashedly male in my mind, despite my physical attributes,” he said.

“I’m asking all of you who accepted me as a transgender to now understand: I was misdiagnosed.

“I am already using the men’s room and dressing accordingly,” he noted.

“It’s so odd to be experiencing this from the other side; as recently as last Friday, I felt I was indeed a woman, in my mind, body and soul.

“Even though I will not wear the wig or the makeup or the skirts again, I promise to remain a strong straight ally, a supporter of diversity and an advocate for equal rights and other LGBT issues including same-sex marriage.”

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

WFTV has learned charges against George Zimmerman could be getting more serious.

State prosecutors said Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, profiled and stalked 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before killing him, so the FBI is now looking into charging him with a hate crime.

Zimmerman admitted to killing Martin in February during a confrontation. However, he claims the shooting was in self-defense. He's facing a second-degree murder charge, which carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. But if Zimmerman is charged and found guilty of a federal hate crime involving murder, he could face the death penalty.

FBI investigators are actively questioning witnesses in the retreat at the Twin Lakes neighborhood, seeking evidence for a possible federal hate crime charge.

This is the same FBI, part of Eric Holder's Justice Department need I remind you, who turned a blind eye to the in your face death threats made against Zimmerman and the bounty put on his head by the New Black Panther Party who are nothing if they're not about hatred.

Murder with a Depraved Mind occurs when a person is killed, without any premeditated design, by an act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind showing no regard for human life.

The primary distinction between Premeditated First Degree Murder and Second Degree Murder with a Depraved Mind is that First Degree Murder requires a specific and premeditated intent to kill.

Accomplice Felony Murder

Accomplice Felony Second Degree Murder occurs when you are an accomplice to a person who kills another human being while engaged in the commission, or attempted commission, of the following statutorily enumerated felonies, regardless of whether they intended the death...

Here's hoping that politics, agendas, ideologies and the like take a back seat to the pursuit of justice and truth in this case.

And here's to God's continued presence in the lives of Trayvon Martin's loved ones.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Free Botox and laser hair removal, free chemical peels and anti-cellulite treatments may at first seem shockingly frivolous in a country like Brazil – which, despite phenomenal economic growth in recent years that has lifted millions out of extreme poverty, still battles with diseases such as tuberculosis and dengue.

But the philosophy behind the more than 220 clinics across Brazil that treat people like Penha and thousands of maids, receptionists, waitresses and others is simple: Beauty is a right, and the poor deserve to be ravishing, too.

The Brazilian Society of Aesthetic Medicine’s Rio clinic has performed free procedures on more than 14,000 patients since its founding in 1997, said Dr. Nelson Rosas, who heads the Rio branch.

Good looks, doctors argue, are more than skin deep, and by treating what patients view as physical flaws doctors are often also healing their psyches.

The notion that beauty treatments can act in much the same way as psychoanalysis, helping free patients from crippling neuroses, was pioneered over thelpast decades by celebrated Brazilian plastic surgeon Ivo Pitanguy.

Nicknamed the “philosopher of plastic surgery” for his intellectual and psychoanalytical take on the vocation, 85-year-old Pitanguy is largely responsible for Brazil’s reputation as a world leader in the field and a top destination for cosmetic surgery tourism.

...

With more than 11.5 million operations a year, Brazil is the world’s second biggest consumer of plastic surgery after the United States, but here there’s none of the kind of stigma that still clings to the practice in the U.S.

Local celebrities appear on the cover of glossy magazines with titles like “Plastica e Beleza,” or “Plastic (Surgery) and Beauty,” and wax poetic about their latest face-lift, breast implant or round of Botox. Actors on the prime time soap operas that captivate the public here regularly get surgical makeovers, as do the characters they play as part of the soaps’ high-drama story lines.

Silicone, on prominent display at the beach here year-round, takes center stage during Carnival, when samba queens wearing only a sprinkling of sequins and feathers flaunt their pumped-up bustlines and gravity-defying rear ends at Rio’s extravagant Sambadrome parade. (Breast and buttock implants are among the most popular plastic surgeries here, along with liposuction, facelifts and procedures to flatten prominent ears).

The senate is currently debating whether the government’s national health service should fully cover breast reconstruction for cancer patients. The state-funded health service already pays for gastroplasties for the morbidly obese and some surgeries to repair serious deformities or injuries, including correcting cleft palates in children.